Americans upset by home pair in the battle for the bronze

DOHA, Qatar, March 10, 2018 – Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan delighted the home crowd by becoming the first Qatari team to win a World Tour medal on home sand when they defeated the USA’s Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena 2-1 (21-19, 19-21, 15-13) in the bronze medal match. 

The pair played two tournaments together in 2014 before they went their separate ways, but since they reunited at the end of 2017 their combination of Cherif’s prowess at the net and Ahmed Tijan’s agility at the back has allowed them to develop into a competitive pairing. 

Dutch Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen won their first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour gold of 2018 when they defeated Russia’s Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Igor Velichko in the 4-Star KATARA Beach Volleyball Cup gold medal match on Saturday. 

The Dutch pair fought back from losing the first set to beat the Russians 2-1 (20-22, 21-14, 15-11).

“We’ve known them since last week when we played them in Fort Lauderdale, they are a new team and a young team and they played amazingly this whole tournament,” Brouwer said. 

Brouwer and Meeuwsen began the year by winning bronze in front of their home fans at the 4-star Dela Beach Open in The Hague.